THIN-FILM DEVICES AND THEIR ROLE IN FUTURE NEUTRON SPECTROSCOPIC INVESTIGATIONS

After an overview of the wide range of new applications of thin-film devices for neutrons, the paper will treat only multilayer devices. By extrapolating from prototypes that have already been realized at the Institute Laue-Langevin it is shown what may be expected from improvements of the deposition techniques. Three main groups of applications are treated: (1) non-polarizing devices for neutron focusing, band filtering and monochromatization; (2) microguides and (3) polarizing devices and their different applications for fundamental physics. The use of polarizing devices for upgrading the existing instrumentation for polarized neutron measurements will be discussed. In conclusion some examples will be given of measurements made with an instrument using 6000 supermirrors, which demonstrates the strength of an instrument that is totally based on thin-film devices.